Since it will probably be a while before I start preaching on a regular basis, I’ve committed myself to doing a little bit of translation work everyday, switching off between Hebrew and Greek. The original languages are my primary source for writing sermons; I do very little with commentaries or listening/reading other sermons. It’s not that I think I’m smarter than the commentaries, I just feel like the text offers all the material a person needs to write a good sermon. Commentaries are a last resort for me and only when I get really stuck. In translating, I’m starting at the beginnings: Genesis in the OT, and Matthew in the NT. My work in Matthew is doubling as “church work” since this is where I’m planning to start with the future Bible study group(s). It’s a great book for addressing the Jewish roots of Christianity, presenting an overview of Jesus’ life and the meaning/purpose of what happened, and providing an example of the importance of being a follower of Jesus.
Last week I “worked” on the first several verses of Matthew 1 – not exactly the most challenging Greek in the NT since there’s a lot of repetition. Matthew 1 is a toledoth – a genealogy – of Jesus. I’m wrestling with a number of thing here:
- My convictions regarding Scripture require me to assume that everything in Scripture is there for a reason. Likewise, each author and book has a rather specific purpose or goal in writing what they do and presenting the information the way they do. The differences between the various toledoths (Ruth 4; 1 Chronicles 3; Matthew 1) are well-documented.
- If a major thrust of Matthew’s gospel is discipleship, then what in the world is the purpose of his toledoth? Perhaps somewhat selfishly, I would love to preach a sermon on this passage. But if I can’t figure out Matthew’s purpose, I’m a little S-O-L.
Bible scholar Kenneth Bailey recently came out with a book entitled Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes. It’s a fascinating read if you’re interested in the Jewish background and culture of the NT. He addresses Matthew’s toledoth, but unfortunately he places all his focus on the four women (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba). It is interesting and unusual for a genealogy to include women, and Matthew was certainly trying to make a point by including them. But Bailey gives very little attention to the role/importance of genealogies in middle eastern culture. I’m just not sure that the four women are intended to over-power the rest of the toledoth.
One thought that I have is that the toledoth is more about the Jewish background than anything else. In addition to emphasizing the importance of becoming a disciple, Matthew also seems to serve as a strong apologetic for Jesus as the long-awaited promised messiah. The number of significant and well-timed OT quotations can hardly be overlooked. Genealogies were important to middle eastern peoples for the reason that they acted as a guide in determining the validity/pedigree of the person standing before you. The four Gospels in general are primarily concerned with revealing Jesus as Messiah. The Jews had very specific ideas about who the messiah would be and where he would come from. And so, it seems that Matthew would include the toledoth at the beginning of his gospel for the purpose of preparing his readers for “the big announcement.” Already from the get-go, he is declaring Jesus as messiah and offering one proof for the validity of that profession.
For most of us living in western culture, family history doesn’t count for much and so we tend to skip over this part thinking it insignificant. But in the ancient near east, family line is one of the most important things a person has. Banishment is one of the worst punishments one could suffer because it meant that you were being dis-owned by your family. Several years ago, I attended a dinner theater put on by Wycliffe Bible Translators that told the story of one of their workers. This missionary worked for years to connect with an indigenous tribe in Australia, never getting anywhere. When she was finally able to grasp the language well-enough to start a Bible translation for this group, she began with Matthew 1. One day a village elder saw her work and was converted almost immediately because of the toledoth. Genealogies were important to that tribe; and being able to present them with a genealogy of Jesus – even if the tribe didn’t know the family – gave the gospel tremendous credibility.
The toledoth may not have the same affect on us, but it is part of the beauty of God’s Word; it was a powerful argument and defense for the messiah-ship of Jesus, proving that – just as the prophets foretold – Jesus had direct ties to the branch of Jesse.
Filed under: Apologetics, Bible Study, Discipleship, Theology
Good for you for really listening to what God is saying through the writers. As a fellow Biblical language learner / user, I would love your thoughts on my post about Bible translations. You can find it here.
Keep up the good work. I’m sure you will find all kinds of interesting thoughts as you work through the original languages.
Hi Jason,
Yay for original languages!
I preached on Matthew 1 this past summer. I follow certain commentators in thinking that the number “14″ holds the key to what’s going on. The genealogy is clearly stylized to emphasize the 14 generations between each significant period in Israel’s history (there are big gaps, omissions, etc.). Matthew has done this in good Jewish fashion to emphasize that Jesus is the long awaited Son of David (the consonants of name David in Hebrew adds up to 14–dalet = 4, waw = 6, dalet = 4). This fits in again with the kingdom of God motif as a New Exodus or return from Exile which reestablishes the Davidic monarchy.
So every time Matthew’s readers hear the number 14, they hear an echo of the Davidic covenant.
Maybe that’s helpful… Maybe not
(if you want a copy of the sermon, email me).
Ya I as looking at the repetition of “14″ and thinking there had to be some significance to it. But my Hebrew and Greek profs at Western were so dead-set against the idea of reading numbers into the alphabets that I’ve been a little hesitant to do so. It was crammed into my head that the letter-number relationship was suspicious with very little evidence that Jews actually followed that line of thought. Such thinking was the tool of heretical liberals
. Bosma and Leder never addressed it in any of my classes with them, so I’ve always fallen into the category of shying away from it. Basically, I don’t pay much attention to it, nor do I condemn it.
But your observations are interesting
. If Jewish readers really did think that way, then that’s certainly a legitimate interpretation. But at the same time, it doesn’t seem to do too much more than just a straight reading. Either way, the readers/hearers would have picked up on Jesus’ direct lineage from David, just some would have seen/heard it as a strong emphasis, rather than just an apologetical point.
As I’m sure you can guess, I am generally very suspicious of numeric stuff. However, in this instance I think it may be on to something. Also of interest is that the age of Messiah would be the 7th 7 (three 14’s are also six 7’s). If I recall correctly Deppe was the first to point this out to me in gospel’s class (and a number of commentators “confirmed” it).
Anyway, I think your prof’s at Western were generally correct.